5 Contemporary Authors Who Write Compelling Fiction
Reading classic literature written decades or centuries ago can be rewarding, but old stories tend to be less relatable than those written by authors in the modern age. Luckily, there are plenty of talented contemporary novelists who write great books that hold readers' attention from start to finish. The authors on this list have all created compelling works of fiction. This video was made with Ezvid Wikimaker.
Talented Authors Who Write Fiction
Why Reading Matters
Important Literacy Statistics
- 12%: Percentage of world population that could read and write in 1820
- 86%: Percentage that could read and write in 2015
- 2/3: Illiterate people worldwide who are women
- 85%: Juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system that are functionally illiterate
- More than 60%: Prison inmates who are functionally illiterate
- 90%: Welfare recipients who are high school dropouts
- 2/3: Students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade that end up in jail or on welfare
- 53%: Percentage of fourth grade students who said they read for recreation
- 20%: Percentage of eighth grade students who said the same
- 30 million: Number of U.S. adults who cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third-grade level
- 1/6: Young adults who drop out of high school
Organizations That Promote Literacy & Reading
If you want to spread your love of literature with those in need, then you should consider looking into these non-profit organizations that promote literacy for people of all ages
How Fiction Makes Our Brains Better
In Depth
Across all genres, fictional tales can entertain readers, provide a relaxing escape, or even feature alternate perspectives of real events and people. Novels can also tackle serious issues that people encounter in real life, focusing on themes such as love and tragedy. Here, in no particular order, is a selection of talented authors who write captivating fictional stories.
First up, at #1, we have Ian Williams, an assistant professor of poetry in the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia. His best-selling debut novel, Reproduction, is a humorous love story about how strangers become family. In 2019, he won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for Reproduction, and he's been featured in media outlets such as The Globe and Mail and NOW.
Williams's other books include You Know Who You Are, which addresses the crisis of young, black masculinity in cities, and Not Anyone's Anything, a collection of short stories. His collection of poems, Personals, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award, and the ReLit Award.
His collection of poems, Personals, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award, and the ReLit Award.
At #2, Jillian Cantor is the USA Today bestselling author of novels for teens and adults, including The Life of Glass, Searching for Sky, The September Sisters, and The Transformation of Things. She has a B.A. in English from Penn State University and an M.F.A. from the University of Arizona.
She's best known for titles such as Margot, a fictionalized take on Anne Frank's sister, and The Lost Letter, a historical novel of love and survival inspired by real resistance workers during the Second World War. Cantor has been featured on sites such as Bustle and Kveller, and she's also written essays about historical fiction and the real people featured in her novels.
#3 is Giano Cromley, the chair of the Communications Department at Kennedy-King College and an assistant editor for the literary journal Identity Theory. His debut title, The Last Good Halloween, was released in late 2013, and in 2014, it was named as a finalist in the High Plains Book Award first novel category.
His debut title, The Last Good Halloween, was released in late 2013, and in 2014, it was named as a finalist in the High Plains Book Award first novel category.
Released in 2017, his short story collection, What We Build Upon the Ruins, features blue collar characters who make mistakes, race blindly toward disaster, and frequently plunge over the rim into darkness. His essays and other articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Threepenny Review, Literal Latte, The Adirondack Review, and the German edition of Le Monde diplomatique.
Next, at #4, is Susan DeFreitas, a first-generation American of Caribbean descent. She has served writers as a freelance editor and book coach since 2009 and is a founding coach with Jennie Nash's Author Accelerator program. Each year, she presents a variety of classes and workshops via LitReactor and the Interlochen Center for the Arts.
DeFreitas' novel, Hot Season, is based in part on real events that took place in the early nineties and mid-aughts, and was the winner of the 2017 Gold Independent Publishers Association Award for Best Fiction of the Mountain-West. One of her stories has also been featured in City of Weird, an anthology that blends imagination and pop culture into a cohesive weirdness that honors the personality of the city of Portland.
DeFreitas' novel, Hot Season, is based in part on real events that took place in the early nineties and mid-aughts, and was the winner of the 2017 Gold Independent Publishers Association Award for Best Fiction of the Mountain-West.
Finally, at #5, we have Dror A. Mishani, an Israeli crime writer and literary scholar specializing in the history of detective fiction. His detective series, which features police inspector Avraham Avraham, was first published in Hebrew in 2011 and has been translated to more than 15 languages. He lives with his wife and two children in Tel Aviv and teaches at Tel Aviv University.
The first entry of his series, The Missing File, tells the story of a guilt-ridden police inspector who's determined to find a missing boy. It was shortlisted for the 2013 CWA International Dagger and won the prestigious Martin Beck Award in Sweden, while the second book, A Possibility of Violence, won the Bernstein Award in 2014.
